Plug

[palkanetoijala31]

Im going to clear some confusion on this to the makers of the app of my opinions pay special attention to number 4

1. its a very good and informative and a lot of hard work has gone in to the making of this app

2. at £1.99 it is very expensive for an app agreed in the app market when u can get door positions for 50p is the rest worth more? i cant see toilets and cash machines and stairs being an issue but perhaps im wrong i have no idea of why the costing strategy is this perhaps profit wise i dont kno?

3. as the maker who as always said to go out and do the hard work for urself with door positions he has suddenly come full circle and making profit by doing it for any tube challenger or random person whom cant be bothered to do it for themselves.This is not to say that is wrong by any means and quite frankly everybody needs money if u can do something well and exploit ur gifts then do so not having the app and doing it all on paper gave me more satisfaction!.

4. the cruncher stationmaster why should i support an app where the maker of it call me a big head for winning zone 1 and hasnt the bulls to apologise for it perhaps then u realise why my objection to it!

[matthewf]

2. at £1.99 it is very expensive for an app agreed in the app market when u can get door positions for 50p is the rest worth more? i cant see toilets and cash machines and stairs being an issue but perhaps im wrong i have no idea of why the costing strategy is this perhaps profit wise i dont kno?

I am the developer of the Station Master App i.e. I wrote all the code for it, I can tell you that they cost the equivalent of a small city car to produce (in time and other costs [to both Apple and other 3rd parties]) which have to be recouped somehow (especially when this is your only source of income).

In my opinion, prices in the App Store are far too low and the consumer has come to expect to only pay 69p (or less) for their Apps. This is mostly the fault of the early software on the App Store (a lot of which was just Apple's demo code re-purposed e.g. the "Fart" apps [which are now not allowed on the App store anyway]). Nobody is going to pay £9.99 for a "novelty" app like that are they - but that has set the precedent for low-price Apps. Free Apps are another discussion altogether as most of these are there for you to be able to access another online service for which you might be paying (or is making money out of you in another way e.g. Facebook / Twitter etc).

High quality, well written, functional Apps should really be costing you in the £10-20 range each.

If you are not aware, not all of the £1.99 purchase price of the App goes to the developer. In the case of £1.99 the share is just £1.21*!

That £1.21 has to be split between myself and any other contributor(s) to pay for any expenses incurred (e.g. graphic software, icon sets, annual developer fees, 3rd party software licenses, tax, promotional copies etc.) even before it gets to me as "salary" £1.21 a sale. We also don't know beforehand, whether or not we are going to sell many copies or not, so there is a gambling element involved in setting a price that will sell (at the low price people expect to pay) and that will hopefully pay back the costs of producing the App in the first place.

Realistically we should be charging at least £13.99, of which we would get a return of £8.52 per App. If you bought Geoff and I a pint of beer in the pub, this is what it would cost you roughly. A pint of beer lasts just as long as it takes to drink it. An App lasts longer than that and requires, in our case, updates and attention [e.g. iPhone 5 support, iOS 6, 7, 8 support and any other technologies Apple might introduce later support] and existing users get those for free and expect that. If we don't keep the App up to date, people won't buy it either. There is an App on the App Store that deals with station exits that hasn't had an update for 3 and a half years - yet people still buy it, because it's 69p (and they haven't read the reviews either that point this out and leave one star reviews).

So, the "costing strategy" of £1.99 is actually cheap for the App and what it contains and the (ongoing) effort to keep it up to date, compared to what it actually costs to make. It was never just a "doors" app for Tube Challengers - there are plenty of door exits Apps out there (good and bad) and cheaper if you just want the doors… By charging more, we are saying we have more content and people will pay more for more (just not at much as is realistic or I would like).

I don't know how many Apps we would have sold at £13.99 (definitely less) but I would be much happier selling it at a higher price... (In fact the price is more likely to go up as time goes on (as we add further content and features).

4. the cruncher stationmaster why should i support an app where the maker of it call me a big head for winning zone 1 and hasnt the bulls to apologise for it perhaps then u realise why my objection to it!

You are taking personal objection to one of the contributors of an App (someone else's potential livelihood) and forgetting that there is not just one contributor involved in this project and the potential loss that it might incur the other contributors to the project.

Matthew.


* 30% and VAT (and other worldwide sales taxes) etc are kept by Apple to pay for the cost of the App Store and the infrastructure for getting the Apps to you [believe me, this is worth the 30% for having someone else do this for you!].

[greatkingrat]

I don't think £1.99 is an unreasonable price and if it ever came out on Android I would be happy to pay that.

[The Raven]

I don't think £1.99 is an unreasonable price and if it ever came out on Android I would be happy to pay that.

Exactly you can pay more for a coffee.

[tractakid]

Make a Windows Phone version. I'd consider spending £5 for it, I know WP is more niche but I really like the idea of the app.

[jamesthegill]

I'd like to say thanks to Matthew for that explanation - not for rebutting the argument, but because it was interesting to hear from that side of things, and the cuts that Apple take.

Also, I'd be willing to pay up to £5 for an Android version myself - I've paid £3.99 for Need For Speed, and this would be far more useful than a digitised Christina Hendricks!

[palkanetoijala31]

a very well and thoughtfully response matthew i must admit a lot of work has got into it and kudos for u for coming up with the idea i have no actual objection to the app nor its price whether i wish to buy of course is a differant matter but i can appreciate the hard work and living cost that go with it not that i have many friends in london that would benefit it from it anyway that aint tube challengers and already know about it!

i hope u somehow make a lot of money from it if u can!

[tubeguru]

What an amazing volte-face.

[palkanetoijala31]

What an amazing volte-face.

i hope matthew makes some money out of it im being nice mr tubeguru so cut me some slack

[Sam]

Seems like you're back tracking a lot to me...

[MylesHSG]

If this ever came out on Andriod I would defiantly pay £5 for this. I have seen it in action on an iphone 3GS and was very impressed with the quality of the app, which obviously has taken much time and effort, plus you are constantly adding new features such as the 3D maps.

I know Andriod is harder to code for due to the vast amount of different hardware (not to mention some phones are still shipping with Andriod 2.3) and you need your app to work on as many devices as possible. Atleast on iOS you know what your working with.

[palkanetoijala31]

Seems like you're back tracking a lot to me...

if u read the post carefully Sam the words I hope Matthew makes a lot of money from it! is the key words in question!

[tubeguru]

Seems like you're back tracking a lot to me...

if u read the post carefully Sam the words I hope Matthew makes a lot of money from it! is the key words in question!

I'm not sure what the "key word" is. I assume it's "Matthew" as opposed, specifically, to "Geoff", but correct me if I'm wrong.

Either way, one minute you're slagging the whole thing off (although one gets the distinct impression that you're only using it to have a go at Geoff personally), and the next you think it's brilliant and you hope Matthew makes loads of money from it.

[moley]

Andi v Geoff - its Senna v Prost all over again! and again! and again!

[Going Underground]

Andi v Geoff - its Senna v Prost all over again! and again! and again!

Only much more exciting than F1